


Unsinkable

by BarbaraKaterina



Series: FrostIron Bingo '19 [3]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Titanic Fusion, FrostIron Bingo 2019, Happy Ending, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Period-Typical Homophobia, Suicide Attempt, That's right, Watch me - Freeform, on a Titanic AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-21
Updated: 2019-08-28
Packaged: 2020-09-23 13:11:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20340664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BarbaraKaterina/pseuds/BarbaraKaterina
Summary: Loki is being pressured into a marriage he *really* doesn't want, and sees no way out.Until, that is, a curious young man interferes in his life the first night of Titanic's journey...





	1. Square I4: AU: Titanic

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is part of the FrostIron Bingo 2019, and this particular chapter goes for Square I4: Au: Titanic, though it's going to be the whole fic, really. Once again, the fic isn't going to be too long - 4-5k words - but I'm separating it into chapters because of bingo rules. Also it's motivating to be able to post in smaller bits!

Loki loves looking at the ship. It's a marvel of modern engineering, and he's so rarely proud of humanity, he's glad he can be now. Having built this! It is impressive, without a doubt. It is also wonderful beyond measure to have something to distract him from his life for a moment.

Then his father gets out of the car, and barks: "Go open Miss Sif's door and be friendly. I swear, if you're not engaged to her by the end of the journey, I will disinherit you and bar you entrance to my house, this is my final warning", and there it is, his life back on track...towards the inevitable cliff.

Loki has no doubt Odin is entirely serious, unfortunately. His eyes say it all: there will be no mercy for Loki, not after his father caught him...well.

Better not dwell on that.

Sif is as poisonous as always, but Loki promises himself to grit his teeth and get through it and propose as soon as he finds an appropriate moment. After all, it isn't like he is going to be happy with any woman, really, so it doesn't much matter that he is going to be marrying this absolute viper. At least this way he can stay part of the family, keep in touch with his mother - surely Father hasn’t told her, surely she doesn’t know what a disappointment he is? Surely no one but Odin knows? 

That's what he thinks, and goes on to treat Sif as best as he can - which, to be entirely honest, _is_barely civil at this point, but then she truly is intolerable - until, after one barely polite brush off, she pulls him aside to hiss: "Be careful, Loki. Do you think I don't know you're a goddamn fairy? You're going to treat me like a princess, starting right now, or I’ll talk and you'll find yourself being dragged to prison - or even better. I have heard they offer forced labour in America now..."

Loki returns to company white as a sheet, and though he normally rarely does, begins drinking immediately.

That night, he takes a stroll on deck, after having far too many whiskeys even for someone with a stronger stomach, and contemplates his future. 

Sif knows, then. He has no idea how. Did Odin tell her? Impossible. But who else could it have been? Did Fandral talk? If Sif knows, who else does? What if it is everyone at home, by now? Sif’s American money would be his only hope then.

Ha! As if she isn’t his only hope in any case, because of his father’s decision.

But he found the idea of marrying her almost unbearable even before, and now...with this hold over him… What are his chances of actually keeping her happy and silent, as opposed to the chances of her just waiting to have a son (and oh, how sick that thought makes him) to inherit the title before, bam, a penal colony to get rid of him? He is sure it would kill him in no time. So convenient, wouldn't even have to resort to poison like other wives, Loki thinks bitterly.

In the past, he might have had some hopes of his father intervening on his behalf in a situation like this, but now he has no illusions left about where his father’s love ends. He’d send him off to forced labour and think ‘good riddance’ - or, perhaps, he’d kill him himself to save the family from the shame. It hasn’t been that long, after all, since he’s threatened to do just that.

Memories of that accursed night flash before Loki’s eyes, and his new horrible imaginings join them, of public exposure and shame, and suddenly Loki knows, just knows, he cannot face this.

He stares into the ocean and thinks about the advantages of ending it here and now, without the public humiliation and without - he can't help thinking spitefully - Sif getting his title, and determined, seeing a way out clearly for the first time in a long while, he climbs over the railing.

Will it hurt, he wonders? He hopes not - he hopes the water is cold enough to send him into shock and then to make it quick, to stop his heart perhaps. Should he wait until they are further north, until the water is colder? But the mere thought of even seeing Sif again is enough to make him sick, and he is just about to let go when a hand catches his wrist.

“Wait!” A voice calls, and when Loki turns his head, he sees...well, an extremely attractive young man.

Poor, too, going by his clothes, but still. Pretty.

Is this Loki’s last reward, he wonders, or God rubbing his sins in his face?

“What do you want?” He asks.

“Don’t jump,” the man says beseechingly.

“Whyever not?” Loki asks him, curious in a detached manner.

“Look, whatever happened to make you think this was a good idea...I swear it’s not that bad,” the man insists, still in that earnest tone.

Loki laughs bitterly. “Oh? I suppose that you think a rich boy like me can’t have any real trouble, don’t you?”

That starts a genuine, amused laugh out of the man, to Loki’s surprise. “No,” he says with emphasis. “Believe me, if something, I don’t think that. But I’ve been through some shit, thought there was no light at the end of the tunnel before, and it does get better. Always, inevitably, it gets better one day.”

“But is it worth waiting through the hell in between?” Loki asks him.

The man nods without the smallest hesitation. “Yes,” he says, “always.”

His firm conviction actually has an effect on Loki. Because for some reason he believes him, believes that he truly went through hell and emerged on the other side, and never regretted doing that. 

Loki looks at the cold water of the ocean below, and it does not look welcoming.

The eyes of the man behind him, on the other hand, hold all the welcome he could possibly wish for.

“All right,” he mutters, making his decision, grasps the man’s hand, and begins to climb back over.

Which, of course, is when his foot slips on the frozen-over railing.

He has a moment of terror, letting out an involuntary shout, until the man catches him and helps him get back to safety.

Unfortunately, the shout was enough to draw attention, and while Loki is still catching his breath and getting over his shock, there’s not only the ship personnel running towards them, but also Odin and Sif. And everyone, quite literally everyone, is giving the man - Tony Eisenman, he’d introduces himself in the moments before the crowd gathered - suspicious looks.

“All is well,” Loki assures them, still a little short of breath but thinking quickly. “Truly. I must have had too much to drink, and I leaned over and slipped, and Mr. Eisenman here saved me.”

Odin and Sif both frown at them dubiously, but then Sif plasters on that sweet smile she has to hide her true nature and says: “Well I am very grateful to you Mr. Eisenman, I am sure! I don’t know what I would do without Loki,” and she laughs a laugh so obviously fake everyone must surely know, putting a proprietary hand on Loki’s forearm, and Loki has to struggle not to shudder visibly.

Sif’s comment seems to wake Odin up to propriety, and taking on his usual role of the benevolent patriarch, he says: “Of course, we’re very thankful, Mr. Eisenman. I don’t know how to repay you - perhaps you could dine with us tomorrow, so that I could begin to show my appreciation properly?”

Mr. Eisenman seems to hesitate a little, looking at Loki. Loki has no idea how to react, and after a moment Mr. Eisenman shrugs and says: “Sure, count me in.”

Odin nods, putting a hand on Loki’s back, and leads him away, Sif by their side.

Loki is still too overwhelmed by everything to know what to think, or feel.

His mind is filled with those warm, brown eyes.


	2. Square G4: Not everything is as it seems (Labyrinth)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A dinner and a party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FrostIron Bingo Square G4: Not everything is as it seems (Labyrinth)
> 
> Also, forgot to say it last chapter, but in case someone doesn’t know: Eisenman is Iron Man in German.

When he has some time to think about it, which is the whole rest of the night during which he barely sleeps, Loki comes to the conclusion that a) he’s immensely grateful to Mr. Eisenman for stopping him, b) that he desperately hopes neither Odin nor Sif realize what truly happened, since that would give them entirely too much power over him, and c) that Odin probably asked Mr. Eisenman to dinner to embarrass him.

There’s not much he can do about the second, he readies himself to thank Mr. Eisenman profoundly for the first but as for the third, well, if that was Odin’s goal, it is obvious enough that he is going to be bitterly disappointed.

First, Mr. Eisenman shows up dressed to the nines, every single little thing completely perfect, and at Loki’s obvious surprise simply smirks and says “some lady who saw what happened yesterday - Miss Potts was the name, I think - offered to lend me some of her brother’s clothes.”

Loki has never heard of this Miss Potts, but he reminds himself to find her and thank her, even as he tries to subdue the flash of jealousy he feels at this, and does his best not to imagine Tony Eisenman changing clothes in her cabin.

The surprises don’t end with the clothes, however.

Loki expects Mr. Eisenman to be awkward and uncomfortable at the table, not knowing how to act or which cutlery to use, but Eisenman takes to it like a fish to water. There is not a single hesitation or confusion, all the way from salad to dessert. He is a charming conversationalist and soon has the attention of the whole table on him.

It starts with telling the story of his rescue of Loki the previous day - entirely fictional, but told in a very engaging manner - and from that, and from someone claiming Loki must have been leaning over the railing to see the ship propellers, they get to discussing ship construction, and it turns out Mr. Eisenman knows a lot about that, too.

Odin’s face grows more and more contemplative the longer Eisenman discusses the intricacies of the steam engine, before he finally plain out asks him how he knows so much.

Mr. Eisenman hesitates for a moment before admitting he used to work in ship construction.

There is an awkward pause, and perhaps his hesitation truly was just embarrassment for his job, but Loki doesn’t think he’s the type, and he’d been entirely smooth and skirting around his origins the whole time at dinner. Loki feels there’s something else behind this, and he’s intrigued.

“The shipbuilder behind this behemoth is here, a few tables over,” Odin fills the silence. “I could introduce you, if you wish - if you are interested. Perhaps you could find work with him, you sound like you know your stuff.”

Mr. Eisenman, however, begs off. “I wouldn’t want to bother such big fish,” he says, and Odin nods with approval.

Loki wonders if he’s the only one who heard the ironic inflection in those words of Eisenman’s. He wonders some more.

The conversation flows on, jumps from one topic to the next, and there is not a single one Eisenman has nothing to say on. He has opinions on politics, on art, on horse-riding of all things!

“You are very well-informed considering your, ah, circles,” Sif says at one point, in that falsely sweet way of hers. “How do you do it?”

“It is not difficult, my dear madam,” Mr. Eisenman replied. “Truly, one barely needs the slightest amount of effort to stay reasonably informed.”

Once again, Loki wonders if anyone else can hear the sarcasm.

The dinner is finished soon after that, and as the men rise for a smoking break, Mr. Eisenman excuses himself, but as he does, he turns to Loki and says in a low voice: “Come with me?”

Loki doesn’t hesitate for the smallest moment. After all, he does still have to thank the man properly.

“That was fun,” Eisenman says once they stand together on the stairs, and this time his sarcasm is completely obvious,“but do you want to see what a real party looks like?”

Loki agreed before he can truly think about it, which is how he finds himself dragged through the corridors of the ship.

“Mr. Eisenman,” he starts, a little out of breath, and the man immediately interrupts him.

“Tony, please,” he says with a grimace. “Especially down here - everyone would think you were an idiot if you called me ‘mister’.”

“All right then, Tony,” Loki says, trying not to blush, “and you may call me Loki. I wished to thank you for yesterday, truly, I owe you so much…”

“Nonsense,” Tony interrupts him firmly. “Anyone who’s not a complete asshole would have done the same. Now come on, we don’t want to miss the fun.”

And so, soon enough, Loki finds himself at a third-class drinking party. It’s entirely what he’d have expected, and at the same time, not at all like it.

There’s drinking, naturally - a lot of drinking - but there’s also improvised dancing not so different from English country homes, really, and Loki can join in a few circle dances beside Tony without effort.

Then they sit down together to have a pint with the other men, and some start good-naturedly jabbing at Loki about the deck he came from, and there’s a guy called Rogers that’s insisting on seeing some first-class dancing, and soon Tony’s pulling him up, laughing, and holding him in the perfect Viennese waltz hold - only, of course, he’d holding him as if Loki were a woman.

They try to step out, and they both start with their right floor to the front, and immediately collide, Tony and the rest of the crowd laughing raucously, but then they settle down as Loki, being the taller, takes the lead and Tony follows and they waltz around the room to the fast tune the improvised band has begun to play when they spotted their dancing, and by the time they finish the whole floor is empty and everyone is cheering them, but Loki is mortified.

It was the most perfect waltz he has ever danced.

He mutters some excuse and fairly runs from the room, but Tony is after him, and even though he’s shorter - Loki has just seen up close how much shorter - and has shorter legs, he still somehow manages to catch up.

Perhaps Loki didn’t try to get away quite as hard as he should have.

“Wait, Loki,” Tony says, catching his elbow. “Wait. I’m sorry if that made you uncomfortable.”

Loki doesn’t want to talk about that, and so instead he says: “You were rather astonishingly good at the Viennese waltz.”

“Yeah, well, you learn all sorts of things living like I do,” Tony says evasively.

Loki raises his eyebrows. “Like how to build ships, and your way around a first class dinner?”

Tony doesn’t reply, and Loki sighs. “I’m not an _idiot_, Tony - or whatever your name actually is,” he says. “I know you’re not who you claim to be. I’d think you were a spy or a blackmailer, but you’re too obvious for the first and too inconvenient for the second. So what is it?”

Tony still says nothing, and when he looks at him the man avoid his eyes.

“Come on,” Loki insists, now growing frustrated and exasperated. “You saw me try and kill myself, what could you possibly want to keep secret that would be more private than that?”

“It’s not like you told me why,” Tony retorts, and it’s Loki’s turn to freeze.

“See?” Tony says bitterly when he notices his reaction, and continues past him down the corridor.

Loki, however, is curious and just a little bit drunk, and so after some hesitation, he says: “It was chiefly the realization that I was bound to be deeply unhappy in my upcoming marriage.”

“Oh?” Tony gives him a look over his shoulder, waiting for him to catch up. “Why marry, then?”

“My father...insists.” Loki think briefly of his blackmailer theory, but really, what kind fo idiot would take on a third class role to blackmail _him_? And Tony doesn’t look like an idiot, so at his continuing questioning look, Loki elaborates: “He caught me in an...indiscretion, and this marriage is one last chance he gave me to fix the situation.”

“Ah.” Tony stays silent for long enough that Loki, now standing next to him - quite close, in fact - thinks he will simply leave, but then he says: “I told you I’ve lived through some shit. I used to...lived in better circumstances, let’s say. But combine dead parents and villainous godfather and voila, you have a destitute young man with no useful skills or experience of roughing it. But well. I pulled through, and one advantage of life among the lower classes is that no one gives a shit about your indiscretions.”

Tony puts emphasis on that word and Loki allows himself to believe, for just one moment, that he means the same thing Loki meant, that had he been part of London’s artistic circles, he would have worn a green carnation on his lapel.

But it is a fool’s dream, and entirely too much risk to take. Loki saw when happens when eh takes such risks, and he swore to himself never to do it again. 

Besides, Tony saved his life, and the last thing he needs is a _goddamn fairy_ harassing him.

“I should get back above, it’s late,” he says abruptly.

Tony gives him a surprised look, but doesn’t protest. “Good night, then,” he says. “See you tomorrow.”

Loki isn’t so certain of that, but he supposes it’s possible.

Which is to say, he knows damn well he shouldn’t, but is still aware he very likely will.


	3. Square G1: Setting: Living room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki gives up on self-control.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once more something I forgot to say last chapter - blackmailers were really common for this time period for men who sought out sex with other men, and in fact ruined many a mlm man’s life. Green carnation, of course, was a reference to Oscar Wilde and his circle.

In the morning, Loki feels bad about the abrupt way he’d ended the evening - he does owe Tony his life, after all - but tells himself it’s for the best.

Until, that is, he spends an hour courting Sif.

Towards the end, he feels like vibrating out of his skin, like he’s covered in slime wherever Sif touches him, and he just has to - has to - get away.

He makes some suitable excuse and steps on the deck, and there Tony is on the deck below him, focused on some papers on his lap.

With the state he’s in, Loki is entirely too weak to resist any kind of temptation.

When he approaches Tony, he first realizes that the man is sketching, and coming even closer, he can see it’s all mechanical things, wheels and wires and other things he doesn’t really understand, and so he asks from behind the deck chair: “What are you working on?”

Tony startles, and immediately closes the folder with his work. “Just some ideas,” he mutters.

Loki sits down next to him. “Did you use to design machines, before?” He asks.

“Yeah,” Tony says, glancing down at his work. “Something like that.”

“Will you let me look?”

Tony gives him a long, considering look, and then a small nod as he lets go of the folder. Loki reaches for it greedily, fascinated by the precision and intricacy of the drawings, and studies every page in detail, dozens of designs he doesn’t understand but that look very impressive - but then he reaches for the next page and somehow manages to shake one free from the bottom of the stack of papers as he moves, and he glimpses a different kind of painting. 

It catches his interest, and though Tony half tries to stop him this time, Loki pulls out the drawing and sees - it’s a naked couple, man and a woman, posing next to each other.

He raises his eyebrows, and in spite of Tony’s weak protests of it not being ‘appropriate for his eyes’, goes looking for more.

And oh dear, is there more.

There are women, yes, but also men, almost equal number of both in fact, sometimes together and sometimes separately, and always painted with great anatomical detail.

“Humans are really the most complex machines,” Tony mutters, sounding just a bit embarrassed. “The way the body works has always fascinated me-”

Loki is not listening. He is thinking of the men in those pictures, naked men, naked men who have posed for Tony, Tony with his _indiscretions_-

Loki abruptly turns to him. “Draw me like that,” he says.

Tony is clearly too shocked to speak for a moment, before an astonished “what?” escapes him.

“I want you to draw me like that,” Loki reiterates. “As an...anatomical study, or whatever you want to call it.”

Tony swallows, audibly so, and gives him another searching look. “All right,” he says then, simply. “When and where?”

They agree on that evening, when they know everyone will be at dinner. Loki grits his teeth and spends the rest of the day being very solicitous to Sif, which earns him enough leeway that when he claims to be unwell in the evening - something his father knows to happen to him from time to time - he’s left in peace without much questions as others depart to eat.

Loki lets Tony into the stateroom not long after. He’s nervous, there’s no denying that, he’s almost shaking, in fact, and has second-guessed his decision about a hundred times at least in the last hour only, but Tony agreed, so surely that must mean something?

Tony looks at him in silence, standing in the door, and then pushes himself inside in such a way that he brushes against Loki, and Loki has to close his eyes to regain control of himself.

He half expects Tony to kiss him then, but the man instead enters the living room and examines it with a critical eye.

“Hm,” he says. “Decent light. It’ll do.”

Loki comes inside the room too, and he’s nervous again, not knowing what to do, or what is expected of him.

Tony gestures to the sofa, setting out his pencils. “Make yourself comfortable,” he says.

Loki hesitates, but he _has_ asked for it, and so with trembling fingers, he starts to undress.

“You can change your mind, you know,” Tony tells him mildly, not looking at him.

“No,” Loki replies, and his voice is firmer than he would have expected. “No, I don’t think I will.”

He is naked now, and looks Tony dead in the eye as he asks: “Where do you want me?”

He is gratified to see Tony open and close his mouth a few times, “Just - on the sofa is fine,” he says at length, and Loki obliges.

“Any particular wishes?” Tony asks, reaching for a pencil.

“You said they were anatomical studies,” Loki replies evenly. His nerves seem to have fallen away. “That’s what I want. Draw exactly what you see.”

No more hiding, Loki thinks, no more masks. This was who he was, and all he was.

Tony begins to draw.

It is...intense.

No words pass between them as Loki lays there aware of his nakedness and Tony’s eyes on him. It is not exactly clinical, but not exactly sexual either, a sort of intent attention of its own kind, attention to every single detail of Loki’s body that not even his one previous lover has given him.

With Fandral, it had been rushed and hidden and interrupted too soon.

This, whatever this was, was the exact opposite of that.

They waltzed together just the night before, for Heaven’s sake, and now Loki was lying in the middle of his living room naked, entirely exposed.

And Tony, always looking, watching, drawing, capturing every minute detail.

The tension grows and grows until Loki feels like he will snap, like this cannot possibly go on any longer, like…

“It’s done,” Tony says softly, and gets up to show Loki the drawing.

They’re too close now, and it’s too dangerous, really, and when Loki takes the drawing from him their fingers brush and it’s…

The drawing is stunning.

Loki says so, his voice shaking.

“What now?” Tony asks then.

Loki looks at him, just looks for a moment, and then he drops the drawing to grab Tony’s lapels and kiss him.

Tony kisses back without the slightest hesitation, and they’d have stayed like that for who knows how long if a sound from the corridor didn’t disturb them.

The first passengers returning from dinner.

Loki jerks away. “Not here,” he whispers.

Tony only nods. “Get dressed, then,” he says.

Loki does, hurriedly, and then he picks up the drawing. He hesitates for the shortest moment, then puts it in the safe in his bedroom and rushes Tony out of his room.

Thankfully no one sees them, and then it’s Tony leading the way, down in a lift and then through the ship to the place where the cars are all parked. “I love cars,” he says as they pass their rows. “Before I met you, I spent half of my time aboard here, because they have some truly beautiful pieces…”

“Did you use to own any like this?” Loki asks him.

Tony grins. “Yeah,” he says. “In fact…” he leads Loki to a particularly beautiful model, and says: “This one used to be mine.”

Loki stares at him. “Who are you?” He asks, but Tony only shakes his head and does something - Loki doesn’t rightly know what - to open the door. 

“Get in,” he says, and Loki, understanding what he wants, does.

He wouldn’t have thought of this, but the car provides more privacy than any other place on this ship, and as Tony begins to kiss him again, Loki thinks, fleetingly, that at least this time he knows Odin won’t catch him.

It is amazing, incredible, divine, so much better than his first attempt. Tony clearly knows what he’s doing perfectly well, he must have been with a man before, and Loki is brought to unknown heights with his hands and mouth, and then...oh, and then…

If this is truly a sin, Loki wonders, than why has God made it feel so heavenly?

He asks Tony this, and Tony laughs. “I don’t believe in God,” he says - how scandalous - and then adds: “And if I did, I still wouldn’t think this was a sin.”


	4. Square N5: BAMF character

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It goes down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Square N5: BAMF character. There's a plethora of them here, actually, take your pick.

It takes them a while to get sorted out and ready to leave, and then they have to make sure no one sees them, so really, it’s quite late at night by the time they make it out to the deck - just in time to see the tip of an iceberg pass right by the railing.

“Fuck,” Tony shouts, explosively, and there’s so much alarm and fear - no, downright terror in his voice that Loki turns to him immediately.

“What is it?” He asks urgently. “That’s...not good, right?”

“This ship is gonna sink,” Tony says immediately, his face ashen. “God fucking damn it, I knew they were running it too fast, I knew it!” He runs his hands into his hair, his voice etchen in desperation. “Oh God, what now, what- okay, we’re in the front, so it’s gonna- but on the sides, so that’s...who knows how many chambers were even damaged, I can’t-it might be as much as the last boiler room, what if-”

“Tony,” Loki says firmly, stopping his panic. “How can you know all this for sure?”

“My real name is Anthony Stark, all right?” Tony retorts impatiently, leaving Loki gaping. “I designed most of this fucking ship, before my own godfather pushed me out of the company and tried to get me killed because I was slowing down the production, insisting on more safety measures...I wanted to be on her first voyage, the idiot I am, there must be somethign I can-”

Loki does his best to get over his shock, and takes Tony by the shoulders. “Are you sure the ship is going to sink?” He asks.

“Yes,” Tony says immediately.

“Is there something you can do about it?”

“...No,” Tony admits after a moment.

“Then we need to get _off_.”

“You don’t understand,” Tony insists. “There’s not enough lifeboats, even after I pushed Obie to add more there’s not gonna be enough, there’s too many people-”

That is not the news Loki wants to hear, but he doesn’t let panic get the better of him. “Then we need to make sure we are on one,” he says firmly. 

But Tony's eyes grow hard, and he says: "No."

This time, Loki does panic. "What do you mean no- please, Tony, tell me you don't have some idiotic idea of going down with the ship?" 

"This ship was built by my company,” Tony replied in a voice as hard as his eyes. “It's my responsibility it exists. I am not leaving a single person in here, do you understand me?" 

Loki feels despair gripping at him at those words, and firmly forbids himself to sink into it now. Not yet. “How many more lifeboats do we need?” He asks. . 

Tony begins pacing, running his hands through his hair once more. “God...after what I pushed through, there should be thirty here, which means there’s enough for about seventeen hundred people...this ship has over two thousand, but still, it means at least all the women and children should be safe, and really most of the passengers should be well…”

Loli couldn't, at this point, care any less for women and children. He thinks of Sif, and fervently wishes she would drown. “We will need beds and wardrobes,” he says out loud, and tables too, he thinks, if there were not enough of those other things, probably - all that first class opulence would finally be good for something. “And woolen clothes and furs, these are best for keeping warm while wet,” he adds. He’s always hated going hunting and all the other wilderness exploits Thor loved, but now they were finally becoming useful.

“Loki, you don’t get it, we have two hours- three at the most.”

“Then we’d better move,” Loki says simply, once again pushing his dread down, and begins to drag Tony behind him, thinking on the move and explaining his plan as he goes. 

As soon as Tony gathers what he means to do, he changes direction and drags Loki instead, to a first class compartment where he pounds on the door, which is shortly opened by a good looking young woman. 

"Tony, what-?" She asks, and Loki feels his jealousy flare. 

"No time," Tony says, forcing his way inside, the bewildered Loki following. "I need my clothes." 

The woman leaves the room, presumably to bring it, and as she does Tony turns to Loki and quickly explains: "This is Miss Potts, my godfather's - Stane's, as you've probably gathered - secretary. Because she's one in a million, she figured out what Stane did after I disappeared, and also knew me enough to realize I wouldn't miss the first voyage of Titanic. She brought clothes for me in the hopes that I'd reveal myself to the society here while Stane couldn't get away, and with the proof she has, we'd destroy him. She contacted me after I drew attention to myself by saving your life, and she recognized me. She hoped I’d use that dinner with your father to announce my presence, but I didn’t want to make it all about me, so....” He grimaces. “I suppose she'll get her wish now, in a way." To Potts, he says: “Titanic is sinking. "

She freezes in the door with the clothes in her hands. "I beg your pardon?"

"Yeah,” Tony says heavily. “Nothing to be done about that, but we need to get the people out. And for that, I need your help - and the young marquess here. "

Tony hurries into his clothes as they explain together, and then Loki and Miss Potts take the few more necessary minutes to make certain he looks perfect, because for this, it is _important_.

Then they, all together, walk to the smoking room, where the men of the first class are gathered.

Loki knows his father will no longer be there - he never could tolerate new money for too long, and there was plenty of new money on Titanic, much more than there was old aristocracy.

This played perfectly into their cards.

Stane was still there, of course, playing lord of the manor to his fascinated guests, and so when Tony entered and said, loudly and cheerfully: “Hello, godfather. Long time no see,” the effect was appropriate.

Because, after all, everyone knew about the mysteriously disappeared Stark heir, the godson of Obadiah Stane and the - as the whispers went - real genius behind Titanic.

Stane doesn’t even turn around, he just says, fury evident in his voice: “What kind of brazen impostor is this?”

Tony predicted precisely this reaction, and so Loki has a chance to step forward and say in a dangerous voice:" Careful, Mr. Stane. Mr. Stark here dined with the Duke of Asgard only yesterday. The whole ship witnessed it. Are you, perhaps, trying to call my father a liar?" 

There's not much Stane can say to that, and when his own secretary confirms Tony's identity, and other American socialites present begin to pay him enough attention to actually remember him, well, Stane's pretty much done.

He puts on the most obviously forced smile in the history of forced smiles, saying: “Tony, my boy, it's really you! I didn't want to believe...it’s been so long…”

Tony waves him away like yesterday’s news and turns to the crowd, who is hanging on his every word now: “Ladies and gentlemen, " he says in a carrying voice, "my godfather here has unfortunately decided to skimp on the manufacturing of this ship, meaning that after a recent encounter with an iceberg, it will sink.” A murmur immediately rises in the room, and Tony raises his voice to be heard over it: “Trust me on that, because no one knows Titanic better than I do. However, I promise you we can all get off safely - but only if you follow my instructions _precisely_. Now. I know most of you have wives or even whole families here. Go get them, while I speak to the captain and the ship management. Dress them in wool and furs, that is what will keep the cold out best, and come to the deck. We need to get them to the lifeboats. _Now_, gentlemen.”

And with that sharp emphasis, they go, many of them casting Stane furious looks as he tries to defend himself and deny the sinking and everyone ignores him. Miss Potts goes to get changed, and Tony and Loki head out to speak to the captain.

He’s on the deck already, having been awakened by the crew, and seems immeasurably relieved by Tony taking charge. They knew each other in person, apparently, and so he has no trouble recognizing the designer of his ship and ceding control.

In no time at all, the deck is full of first class ladies and children being rushed to the boats, and Loki has to intercept an attempt to send one away half-full. “Are all these people insane?” He asks incredulously.

“Just rich,” Tony returns, which is a fair point, really.

They rush around, recruiting the more reasonable-looking crew members into helping them to ensure nothing like that happens again. Some more unexpected help appears, too. Miss Potts emerges from her Cabin wrapped in a fur coat and takes to directing the boarding ladies with efficiency most military commanders could envy, and Loki notices Miss Rushman, the lover of one of the rich industrialists, of all people, going around calming those who are panicking, appealing to men who have a tendency to try and grab a seat for themselves before the women, awakening whatever gallantry is to be found in them.

If he isn’t very much mistaken, he also sees her deal with one who doesn't look liable to be persuaded in a much more physical manner, leaving him unconscious on the floor, which is _very_ interesting, and Loki is very sorry he has no time to explore that more.

Finally, the first class ladies and their children are all boarded - with proper shepherding, they only took up three lifeboats, and even though Loki rationally knows third class is much larger, he still cannot help feeling reassured by that - and as they are lowered to the water, the crew goes to rouse second-class and Loki goes to ask first class men to bring out what furs and woolen coats they have left in their staterooms for those who are less fortunate and could freeze in the cold night.

Miss Rushman and Miss Potts have both stayed aboard, and Loki can hear Tony arguing with his godfather’s secretary. “I will go, Tony, promise,” she is saying, “I will go with the last third class ladies, but you cannot ask me to go any sooner.”

In spite of his jealousy, Loki cannot help to feel a flare of admiration for that.

If it wasn’t for Tony, he would have probably already tried to dress up as a woman and get out.

He makes the rounds of first-class passengers, asking them for clothes, as the second class ladies board the boats - they are quick, they had already noticed something was happening and were awake, and Loki is so, so grateful there are so few children - and as he focuses half on the rich men he does his best to convince and half on the people boarding around him, he pays little attention to where exactly he’s going and ends up facing his father.

“What are you doing?” The man asks him quietly.

Loki closes his eyes for a moment. “Father, please,” he says. “I don’t have time for this, the ship is sinking. Just...bring any woolen clothes we have, the poor children will need them.”

Odin looks at him for a long moment, but then, to Loki’s astonishment, nods and turns to go.

The second class ladies have finished boarding now, just two lifeboats, that’s good, and it’s time to open up third class.

When they planned this with Tony, they expected clamor here - after all, it is entirely possible that by this point, there is some water in the cabins already - and tried to get around boarding the lifeboats by class, but the unfortunate truth remained that it was the most efficient way. So they are all astonished, coming over to help, to find the third class passengers waiting in a relatively orderly way, women and children at the front.

Then Rogers, the man Loki remembers from the previous night, steps up to the stewards and says: “Tell us what to do, sir.”

It turns out that he and a few others have taken it upon themselves to ensure there was no panic, and as Tony directs the ladies to the lifeboats and tells them to pick up woolen clothes in the piles of it that have appeared on deck if they don’t have any of their own, Loki observes three men - one with a military bearing, one who looks like he relies more on mild convincing, and one who carries a bow and arrows of all things - try to control the crowd.

“Remember, wet cotton will kill you,” Tony instructs them, repeating what Loki had said to him before, “so if you get your cotton dress wet, don’t be shy, just take it off and wrap yourself in wool! Survival is more important than modesty! Now come on, there are more lifeboats available on that side!”

That is when Loki sees the man with bow and arrows shoot a ruffian who tries to get his place in a boat before the women.

Well. He supposes that desperate times call for desperate measures.

And it does keep the rest in line.

Lifeboats are becoming filled much more quickly now, and Loki sees the men becoming nervous, realizing there truly might be no space for them left. 

Some people accept the possibility death calmly - the band from first class gathered on the deck and is playing in a grim, melancholy certainty of the approaching doom - but others are becoming twitchy, and Loki exchanges a look with Tony and they begin to pay more attention to this, walking alongside the crowds of waiting men, making sure no one starts a mass panic.

Loki ends up drawing his dagger a few times, to make the threat clear to anyone who doesn’t stay in their place and wait.

One of such people, not very surprisingly perhaps, is Obadiah Stane.

He looks at loki with contempt. “I’ve heard of you, you goddamned fairy,” he says, and pulls out a gun from his coat to counter Loki’s knife. “It will be my genuine pleasure to shoot-”

He doesn't get any further, because Tony comes to him from behind and smacks him over the head with something iron and heavy.

“Do you think it would be too much if I knocked him overboard?” He asks conversationally.

“Too much work,” Loki opines. “Let him just remain here and his shady work will take care of the rest.”

“You’re right,” Tony agrees. “Poetic justice.”

They smile at each other, strained around the edges but still a smile, and continue prowling the deck, trying to ensure everything goes as peacefully as possible.

Rogers is walking around too, talking down the panicking men, calming them and motivating them to help others instead. Loki sees the mild-looking third class man from before grow angry when a man tries to disrupt the proceedings and, when the guilty party wouldn’t be subdued, simply throw him overboard, which serves just as well to calm down the others as the arrow did before, and as Loki’s dagger. The man, no longer looking so mild, takes to pacing the deck threateningly after that. There is a couple, the woman refusing to evacuate until the last minute as they round up lost children and put them on lifeboats. 

Finally the last women and children are leaving. There are so many more children in the boats now, and Loki, in spite of himself, is terrified for them. But it seems none were left aboard at least, and Tony is giving his moving goodbye to Miss Potts as Miss Rushman stands by her side impatiently, insisting she needs to go now. Apparently the two have begun to cooperate while Loki wasn’t looking.

The boats open to men, and that is where the true clamor starts.

The third class ladies took seven more lifeboats, so there is eighteen left of them now - enough for all passengers in theory, Tony says, but in the fear and panic it feels different, and in spite of the best efforts of the crew and all the helpers, they do not always prevent people from fighting over a place on a boat. There is no class preference now, but many feel there still should be.

Loki is shocked to see Sif, wrapped in a man’s cloak but still clearly recognizable to him, shoot a man who tries to throw another overboard.

What was she still even doing here?

The last thing he wants is to be confronted by her, though, so he heads away from her and looks around for Odin. 

It is a relief to see him be lowered in a lifeboat, in spite of everything.

Tony finds him in the uproar, and shouts: “We don’t have much time, we have to tell the crew about the wardrobes and tables!”

And so they do, and people invade the first class staterooms and drag out what they can, throwing it into the water. 

“Paddle as far away from the ship as you can,” Tony calls after them, “or it will pull you down with it!”

And then the ship starts to tilt beneath their feet, and Tony’s eyes grow wide with panic once again and he shouts at the top of his lungs: “Now, you have to all go now, there’s no more time! Everyone who doesn’t go now will be pulled down with the ship!”

He looks around the deck, where there are still far too many men, with despair, and Loki grips him firmly by the shoulder. “Tony,” he says. “Everyone left here is an able-bodies, reasonably young man. There’s nothing we can do for them that they cannot do for themselves. Come _on_.”

Reluctantly, Tony nods, but he still shouts instructions at anyone they meet as they grab a large table - “not the wardrobe, someone might need it more” - and throw it to the water, grabbing some free planks of who knows what provenience and lowering themselves onto it by way of the ropes left behind by the lifeboats. 

And then they paddle away as fast as they can, away from the ship that will soon become a deadly whirlpool.

They watch from a distance as the ship tilts more and more, and then as it breaks in two, Tony horrified because, in spite of their best efforts, there were still some people on board.

They watch as Titanic sinks from a distance, and then they sit huddled together, shaking in cold - they did take Loki’s advice and took off their wet cotton shirts, but the woolen jackets don’t provide as much protection against the cold as one might wish - and wait, not knowing if a rescue will come.

It does, to their near surprise. Finally, after a time that seemed almost infinite, as they desperately tried to keep each other awake in the cold, holding each other in a tight embrace, a ship comes and they are able to board.

“Your names?” The official who takes charge of the refugees asks them.

“Anthony Stark,” Tony says firmly, and Loki immediately sees deference appear in the eyes of the official.

“And your friend?” He asks.

They exchange a look. Loki know one thing with complete certainty in that moment: he is never going back.

“My cousin,” Tony declares.

“Loki Stark,” Loki adds. “At your service.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have always wanted to fix that lack of basic physics understanding in the film!
> 
> I originally started to cheerfully plan how they save themselves and then I realised Tony was a superhero and would never leave as long as people in need of help remained. I felt much like Loki in that moment. Then I decided that there was nothing doing, they would simply have to save (almost) everyone, because you thought I couldn’t make a Titanic AU end with a happy end? Pff. Watch me.
> 
> The one Natasha took down was Justin Hammer, but I couldn’t find a way to fit the info in properly!
> 
> The bit about wet cotton is true, by the way - it cools you, while wet wool still holds the heat. In case you ever need to know.


End file.
